Six in 10 Muslim wives not legally marriedAbout 6 in 10 Muslim women who have had traditional Islamic weddings in Britain are not legally married, according to a survey.

They have had a nikah marriage but 61% failed to go through a separate civil ceremony, recognised by the family courts.

If their marriage breaks down and they cannot agree on a division of assets, it means they must fight through the civil courts rather than start with a presumption that they will get an equal share.

The survey, of 923 women in the UK, was based on responses to community researchers rather than random sampling. The findings will be broadcast [at 10pm] on Tuesday on Channel 4 in The Truth About Muslim Marriage.

Rukhsana Noor, a divorcée who appears in the report, told The…[paywall here]

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Often, I think, this is quite deliberate. (after all, people could simply book a simple registrar ceremony before or after they Muslim wedding, to legalise things. Jewish people always do in London, even the arch-orthodox ones.)

A woman who is not married in UK law cannot file for a divorce or for maintenance. While their partners can dismiss them by merely saying a word three times, the women would need a sharia court to allow them to leave their husbands, and the security afforded to them is nothing like that other people take for granted.